School parents turn to MLAs after credit card irregularities

Alliance MLA Nick Mathison is the chair of Stormont's education committee

There is "significant discontent" among parents at a County Down grammar school, the chair of Stormont's education committee has said.

MLAs on the committee had received correspondence from parents raising concerns about Assumption Grammar in Ballynahinch.

The use of credit cards at the school had been branded "concerning" in an interim report by the Education Authority (EA).

However the school's board of governors said the interim report contained "inaccuracies" and "invalidated documentation".

On Wednesday, the education committee discussed correspondence they had received regarding Assumption Grammar.

Staff morale at 'all-time low'

The committee chair, Alliance MLA Nick Mathison, said it was "alleging some financial irregularities and governance issues".

DUP MLA Peter Martin told the committee that he had first been contacted by people concerned about issues in Assumption Grammar "about a year ago".

He said there was "a whole range of issues that are ongoing in this school".

"At the end of last term, 60 members of staff at Assumption Grammar called for an independent review of the school's governance structures," he continued.

He said staff morale "is at an all-time low".

Martin said that a parents' group had formed since then, which represented 150 parents.

"They have raised a number of issues and they have come to this committee because they feel they have nowhere else to go," he said.

"Where else can these parents go to?

"They've come to the committee, they just want answers."

The committee chair proposed that the committee send the correspondence they had received to Education Minister Paul Givan and the EA

The committee chair proposed that the committee send the correspondence they had received to Education Minister Paul Givan and the EA, but not the school's Board of Governors.

"The committee has always been really clear that we do not have a function as a complaints handler for individual schools," Mathison said.

"I would worry that you would be making a very clear exception in this case.

"The volume of correspondence that has been generated from parents on this it is clear that there is significant discontent."

Sinn Féin MLA Cathy Mason said "this clearly is a very serious ongoing issue".

"A lot of us have been contacted around it," she said.

She agreed with the chair that the committee should send the correspondence it had received to the department and the EA.

"My view is that there's a much wider issue at play here in terms of voluntary contributions and transparency," she said.

She said the EA and the department "should be going out of their way" to get answers from the school's governors.

MLAs on the committee agreed that they share the correspondence they had received about the school with the EA and department, and ask for a response to the concerns it highlighted.